The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom gets great mileage from returning to the same location as Breath of the Wild, as demonstrated by a visit to the Great Plateau tutorial area from the first game.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom takes place in the same Hyrule as its predecessor, Breath of the Wild. It’s true that the map has been extensively changed by the events of the Upheaval: Zonai ruins have fallen from the sky, sky islands float overhead, and rifts have opened up to a pitch-black underworld. But everything is still where it was: Hyrule Castle, the jagged, leaning spires of the Dueling Peaks, the baking wastes of the Gerudo Desert. It’s recognizably the same place. For a full-fat sequel that took Nintendo six years to make, this level of content recycling is unusual, to say the least.
Prior to Tears of the Kingdom’s release, some fans wondered if the sequel would feel more like a glorified expansion. Since the game’s launch, however, this topic has barely come up. Even the expected flood of comparison shots, or the laundry lists of what has and hasn’t changed, haven’t really materialized (although players have noticed that Zelda changed the decor after moving into Link’s pad). Swept up in the dizzying possibilities of Tears of the Kingdom’s new toolkit, or the surprise and mystery of its new quests, players don’t seem to notice, or mind, that they’re literally retreading old ground.
To begin with, I felt the same. Maybe it was something to do with the game’s opening, high in the heavens on Great Sky Island. The untethered, windblown novelty of this lofty place, capped off with a sensational skydive to the more familiar world of Hyrule below, set the tone and made everything that followed feel fresh as a breeze. Maybe it was the liberating joy of being back in the hands of master designers with the confidence to give players the freedom to explore their world, and the craftsmanship to guide their eyes toward all of the exciting things to do there.
